The state of Georgia has passed a law stating that convicted sex offenders can't live or work within 1000 yards of a church. The thing that's so amazingly idiotic about this is the fact that the church is exactly where they're supposed to be!
Jesus comes onto the 1st century stage with a clear message: the Kingdom is available for anyone who wants it! You don't have to a member of the religious elite. You don't have to be ritually pure. You don't even have to be a Jew! What awesome news for the 95% who were none of those things. As a matter of fact, Jesus responds to religious criticism regarding who he hung out with by saying that forgiveness was for those who needed it, not for those who don't (don't miss the sarcasm there).
Somehow, 2000 years later, we've discovered a new eternal truth. Yes indeed, we've decided that we get to filter our churchgoers like job applicants, and darn it, let's make sure they're clean before they come into the House of God! Goodness, we certainly can't have them coming to God DIRTY! Heavens no! It's not fit for a KING! Nope, sorry...you'll have to get all straigtened out first. Come talk to us when you think you're ready.
The church is a hospital. It's a place where the grievously wounded come to heal, and sometimes that takes a long time. Sometimes people retain bad habits. Sometimes people's language is rough, or they drink too much on occasion. Or sometimes a person comes to church every Sunday in the midst of a devestating struggle with drugs or sexuality. Sometimes they come brimming with pain stemming from a myriad of sources, from abuse and abandonment to divorce and disillusionment. If they cannot find love, solace and hope in the midst of God's people, to whom he deparately desires to restore them, where will they find it? If YOU, reading this article right now, will not accept and love the "leper" (fill in the blank with any outcast you can think of) sitting next to you, and YOU are the conduit of God's love to the lost, then who will love them?
So what do we do? Do we send the message that God doesn't want them? And don't say, "Well, they just have to understand that it's our human failing, not God". That's pretty naive. Who do you think they will blame? It will be God, and they will paint the entire institutionalized church with the same brush. They'll become yet another among the millions and millions disenfranchised by the church over the years because they didn't measure up.
Sure, let's take reasonable precuations. At the Vineyard Church of Savannah we screen Kid's Church workers carefully. To lump all these offenders into one homogenous group, then expell them from society is unjust. Before we become the church with stones in its hands, maybe we should take a look at where a lot of us came from. The Apostle Paul calls himself "the worst of sinners(gk., "offender")". Jesus came to accept to outcast...so will the Vineyard Church of Savannah.
Jesus comes onto the 1st century stage with a clear message: the Kingdom is available for anyone who wants it! You don't have to a member of the religious elite. You don't have to be ritually pure. You don't even have to be a Jew! What awesome news for the 95% who were none of those things. As a matter of fact, Jesus responds to religious criticism regarding who he hung out with by saying that forgiveness was for those who needed it, not for those who don't (don't miss the sarcasm there).
Somehow, 2000 years later, we've discovered a new eternal truth. Yes indeed, we've decided that we get to filter our churchgoers like job applicants, and darn it, let's make sure they're clean before they come into the House of God! Goodness, we certainly can't have them coming to God DIRTY! Heavens no! It's not fit for a KING! Nope, sorry...you'll have to get all straigtened out first. Come talk to us when you think you're ready.
The church is a hospital. It's a place where the grievously wounded come to heal, and sometimes that takes a long time. Sometimes people retain bad habits. Sometimes people's language is rough, or they drink too much on occasion. Or sometimes a person comes to church every Sunday in the midst of a devestating struggle with drugs or sexuality. Sometimes they come brimming with pain stemming from a myriad of sources, from abuse and abandonment to divorce and disillusionment. If they cannot find love, solace and hope in the midst of God's people, to whom he deparately desires to restore them, where will they find it? If YOU, reading this article right now, will not accept and love the "leper" (fill in the blank with any outcast you can think of) sitting next to you, and YOU are the conduit of God's love to the lost, then who will love them?
So what do we do? Do we send the message that God doesn't want them? And don't say, "Well, they just have to understand that it's our human failing, not God". That's pretty naive. Who do you think they will blame? It will be God, and they will paint the entire institutionalized church with the same brush. They'll become yet another among the millions and millions disenfranchised by the church over the years because they didn't measure up.
Sure, let's take reasonable precuations. At the Vineyard Church of Savannah we screen Kid's Church workers carefully. To lump all these offenders into one homogenous group, then expell them from society is unjust. Before we become the church with stones in its hands, maybe we should take a look at where a lot of us came from. The Apostle Paul calls himself "the worst of sinners(gk., "offender")". Jesus came to accept to outcast...so will the Vineyard Church of Savannah.
posted by Frank Oesterheld at 9:34 AM
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